Devils to Meet 2 New Opponents This FallAfter a wild off-season that could have season a major upheaval in Class A schedules, Lincoln County's football slate will feature only 2 new foes this fall. First Presbyterian Day School of Macon will be the only new Region 7-A opponent. The Vikings moved from GISA two years ago. They played in Region 5-A the last two years, and the GHSA denied their petition to play in 4-A in 2012-14. FPD was 8-3 in 2011, including a 31-21 region win over state runner-up Landmark Christian.
The other new opponent is Ninety Six from Greenwood County. The Wildcats are essentially replacing Abbeville on the Red Devils' schedule. Ninety Six has a strong football heritage, including state championships in 2000 and 2001 when Devil assistant Mike Doolittle was the Wildcats' head coach. Doolittle won 106 and lost 55 games during his 13 seasons at the school (1994-2006).
With Washington-Wilkes moving back to Class AA, the Devils and the Tigers will renew their long rivalry in the second game of the season on September 7 at Buddy Bufford Field. W-W is in 8-AA for the next two seasons, and won't play Thomson. The Tigers open with Calhoun Falls while our Devils play McCormick August 31.
Hancock Central visits Lincolnton to close-out the regular season. While there is much talk about Hancock being scheduled to play in Warrenton on September 28, the Bulldogs best pay attention to their September 14 game; they have to play at powerhouse Buford (now in AAA). Click here for the complete GHSA 2012 football schedule.
While the Class A playoffs will be split into separate brackets for public schools and private schools, games between public and private may count into the seeding process for the 16 teams that will make up each bracket. As always, every game is important.
September 21 and November 16 will be open dates for the Devils. Playoffs will begin November 23 for Class A teams.
8/31 At McCormick, SC
9/07 Washington-Wilkes
9/14 Nintey-Six, SC
9/28 At First Presbyterian
10/05 At Warren County
10/11 At Aquinas
10/19 Georgia Military College
10/26 At Twiggs County
11/02 Wilkinson County
11/09 Hancock Central
Barden Gets NFL Opportunity with TitansRed Devil star QB and receiver and Vandy tight-end Brandon Barden has agree to a free-agent contract with the NFL's Tennessee Titans. GoTitans.com reported last night, "The Titans 'reached a deal with' Vanderbilt tight end Brandon Barden on a free agent contract following Saturday’s NFL Draft." Brandon's mother Becky confirmed the news via Facebook.
Good luck to Brandon as he competes for a spot on the team's roster.
GHSA Votes to Split Class A PlayoffsFinally an improvement. This morning in Macon, the GHS Executive Committee voted 36-12-1 to split Class A playoffs in all sports into public and private brackets. Lincoln County will be in Region 7-A for 2012-2014. First Presbyterian also appears to be in 7-A. Today the GHSA determined their previous approval for those schools to move to other regions was dependent on whether a large number of schools pulled out of the GHSA. With that now unlikely, the 7-A alignment originally proposed is approved.
Public and private schools will play each other in region competition as they always have. When it's playoff time, public schools will be seeded and compete against each other for a state title, and private schools will compete against other privates. At most the playoff brackets will have 16 teams each, down from the current 32.
While some may say neither will be a true state champion under this scenario, a strong case can be made this is akin to having champions in other classes. Starting with 2012, GHSA will crown 7 state champions in each sport.
Important questions remain about how schools will be seeded in the playoffs, given the widely varying number of public and private schools in different regions. Some regions have no private, and some have no public. Also, the GHSA may need to address the concern that games against teams from the other bracket may count in the seedings.
This change will probably avoid the much-discussed secession of 30 or more small public schools. The GPSA (Georgia Public Schools Association), as the new league may have been called, may still be created in some form soon. A January 24 meeting of this group will help decide its future.
Interestingly, the first official use of the GPSA name appears, of all places, in the minutes of today's GHSA meeting. Quoting, "Motion by Jesse Crews, seconded, to make contact with the representatives of the newly formed Georgia Public School Association concerning meeting with the GHSA Trustees as soon as possible." The voice motion was approved, so there may be a meeting of reps from the GHSA and the currently non-existent GPSA.
This is not a solution to the overall problem, but an improvement. Most public schools, for travel and other reasons, want to compete with the private schools. Unfortunately, some private schools so manipulated the playing field that this separation is the only current viable option. This still leaves a number of important issues that the GHSA must tackle in the coming years if the organization is to meet its objective of fair competition.
This separation is not unusual. Most other states have separations, either by class or by full association. Georgia is one of the last to deal with this.
Links:
Official GHSA January 10 minutes
Macon.com: GHSA plits Class A public and private schools
Chronicle: GHSA votes to split Class A playoffs
SavannahNow.com: GHSA splits Class A into public, private divisions
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